After 9 months working in a hotel in the Lake District it’s finally time to hit the road again. Our original plan of doing a huge USA roadtrip were rudely demolished after Craig was denied his visa for no apparent reason. Which led us to going back to the drawing board and figuring out a new plan for our year of travels. We decided on a two week camping trip in Oman to kick things off, renting a car to get around and sleeping in a tent every night, followed by a second visit to the Maldives and a couple of months exploring China. After that we’ll figure out where to go next but the Philippines and Pakistan are high contenders right now. So it’s time to pack our bags and fly to Muscat, the capitol of Oman.

It was our first time flying with Qatar airways which I consider to be a rather fancy airline and usually out of our budget, so I was a little surprised when the lady at check-in asked where I was flying to and when I said Muscat she asked which country that was in so I said Oman and she said “oh so in the UAE?” Nothing feels me with confidence like someone giving you a ticket to fly across the world with no idea which country it’s in. To make matters worse I had a horrible women sat behind me who constantly kicked, punched and shook my chair if I reclined. I couldn’t be bothered with confrontation while in midair, I should of really given her a piece of my mind but instead I sat uncomfortable for the next 6 hours. What a bitch. The meals were rather questionable with a sloppy pizza dough that tasted like it’d been soaked in bath water. It was so soggy that the moment I lifted the bread to take a bite all of the toppings slid off in one quick swoop.

We arrived in Doha for a 6 hour layover and thought it seemed a little underwhelming. There weren’t many food options so after some Burger King fries we decided to make our way towards the gate and get a few hours sleep. Turns out that the airport was actually massive, so big that we ended up in this humongous room with an indoor garden! That’s an understatement, it was kind of like a botanical garden with a big water feature, in the middle of the airport! All of the plants and trees were live, including some trees which stood 15-20 meters tall. I was so impressed. Pathways led through the gardens so it felt like we’d been transported into nature and they even had some patches of (albeit fake) grass where people were relaxing or taking a kip. It was so cool because it looked like a city park. It was also definitely the nicest area of the airport to take a nap so we followed suit and laid down on the plastic grass. After only 40 minutes we were woken up by security, along with everyone else who dared to lay vertically. He did say there was a quiet lounge we could go to instead but we assumed it was paid. It was only just before we boarded that I happened to spot one of the quiet rooms which was in fact a lovely dark room with lounging chairs, for free. Dammit.

We finally arrived in Muscat at 4am so we found a comfy lounger to sleep on in the baggage claim until our 9am car rental pick up. We sorted out a SIM card and got some cash out before standing outside for 45 minutes waiting for a very late meet and greet from our rental company. He drove us out the airport and just pulled over on the main road where he got us to sign the documents and pay on his portable device, who needs a professional office ay!

Then we were let loose on our own where we made our way to Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque with windows wound up and AC blasting. The heat was a bit of a shock actually. It’s only about 25° but we’ve been in much cooler climates for a long time now so I was melting away. To enter the mosque I had to cover my head, arms and legs down to my ankles…while Craig was allowed to wear a T-shirt. I knew my dress was borderline because it didn’t quite cover my ankles so they asked me to cover them before entering, resulting in me donning a pair of long socks, it was quite a look!

The mosque was ivory white which reflected the sun into my poor retinas until I couldn’t take another step forward without digging my sunglasses out my backpack. It was quite a large mosque so we took our time admiring the outside before venturing into a few rooms, the largest of which had a humongous chandelier hanging from the domed, mosaic ceiling. Apparently it’s the same size as a small house and even has a little staircase inside so workers can perform maintenance. It’s made up of 600,000 pieces of cut crystal and weights a whopping 9 tons! There were lots of decorative mosaic art on the walls outside too, each section with a different colour theme.

After our first little bit of sightseeing we drove through the busy traffic towards Muscat city where we pulled over at a big hypermarket to buy our camping gear and food. There was also an IKEA at the mall which I found very exciting as we haven’t been to one for many years so we decided it was a good option to get some cheap food, refillable drinks and free wifi.

The hypermarket was just like a big European supermarket but I’d say the prices were all a bit higher than the UK. Camping gear on the other hand was extremely cheap, we picked up a tent for £12 and a stove for £8. We brought our sleep matts from England and have a blanket and pillow curtesy of Qatar airways. Job done. The bill came to £96 in the end but that should keep us going for a week or so.

Then we continued driving past the city centre and down to Muttrah, the old port city which had lots of white, flat-topped buildings squished between jagged rocky hills. We headed up the steep steps to the fort for better views but the weather was overcast and it was a little flat compared to the photos I’ve seen online. Kinda strange as it’s a desert country, always blessed with blue skies, it reminded me of the time we visited Death Valley in the USA and it was raining – the lady in the info centre tried to suggest we were lucky “it’s so rare that we see rain here, it only happens about 3 times a year!”

There was some souks to roam around afterwards, the more traditional ones were closed while locals went to pray but the touristy shops remained open. All we bought was a washing up bowl we found hidden under piles of home-goods in a little store. It was covered in dust and cost us £1.70…in England that would of cost a quid from a pound store and would come without a decade of dirt on it. On our way back along the waterfront we stopped at a local coffee shop. It was the first one we’d bought so we were unsure how much it would cost and a local heard us pondering and we thought he replied “4 rial”. Which was basically £4…for a thimble sized coffee in a paper cup. My jaw dropped a little but I guess it was my fault for not asking before it was made so I grabbed 5 rial from my wallet and the customer suggested another note at which point I thought, hang on a minute…does he mean it’s £4 PER COFFEE?!?! But then he poked his head into my wallet a little more and pointed to another note – the 500 baisas one. Turns out it was 400 baisas which is actually just 40p per coffee. We all had a good laugh when we realised.

Then we hit the road out of the city and searched for a place to camp for the night. We were a little surprised at quite how desolate the country was with rocky hills dominating the landscape. As we saw the rocky ground on either side of the road we began to wonder how easy it was going to be to find a place to camp, let alone a comfy one! In the end we pulled over in a sort of small fishing port or boat dock. It was nestled in a desert-like fjord which wiggled inland and had steep beige rocky cliffs on either side. The tide was on its way out but the water that remained was a fabulous blue colour. We wanted to camp in the wilderness but nightfall was catching up so this spot would have to do. We parked in a discreet corner and waited until it was pitch black to put up our trusty new tent.

Craig cooked us some pasta and sauce for dinner while being harassed by multiple cats. It appears to be a bit of a cat country which is a shame, I’m much more of dog person. In fact, cats drive me mad. These ones were just constantly meowing and making begging noises and there was no chance we were going to feed them as it would encourage them to stay near us and beg all night. There was a rocky shore down to the waters edge and before I went to bed I shone my torch around and there were 5 sets of eyes staring back at me. I really hope they don’t bother us in the night.

When I pictured us camping in Oman, cleaning cat piss off the side of our tent with a baby wipe wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. But alas, the rascals who surrounded us last night while we cooked decided to punish us for not feeding them by spraying pee on our tent. We both had a terrible night sleep, we could hear people chatting not too far away and then the call to prayer beamed out the speakers and echoed off the rocky hills. To be fair I love the call of prayer, it brings back so many fond memories of our time in Muslim countries…although I had a different opinion in Indonesia as they made sure the megaphone was strong enough to rattle the door in your hotel room.

We were up at 6:30am as we wanted to pack our tent away just incase we weren’t supposed to be camping in this area but also to catch the sunrise which didn’t really happen because we woke to another cloudy day, what are the chances ay?! So we cracked onto making some porridge and a well needed coffee which we enjoyed on the rocky shore. The sun did manage to poke out between the clouds for a brief moment which eliminated the rocky cliffs in an orange glow. After breakfast we hit the road but quickly slammed on the breaks when we saw a toilet sign outside a mosque. I’d read that you can often use the mosque toilets so I headed over but could only find the men’s so instead we drove on and I climbed up an absurdly rocky hill until I found a spot where I could dig a hole.

A scenic drive led us to the Bandar Khirin Reserve which had plenty of sea inlets surrounded by orange hills, little coves with turquoise water sloshing along the shore and pretty islands. The road was so nice and quiet to drive along which was just what we needed after the busy roads yesterday. We parked up atop some cliffs and set off on a stroll which would take us past a few beaches. It was a lovely little walk through the desert and we didn’t meet a single soul. The beaches were very pretty and felt wild with the rocky hills as a backdrop. For some reason puffer fish seemed to be struggling to survive in the area as we came across a dozen skeletons along the beach. We even came across one who had just been stranded on the shore and was probably on its last breath until we spotted it and quickly went into rescue mode, carefully popping him back in the sea where he swam in a rather side-ways manner.

We headed back to our rental car which we’ve affectionately nicknamed Alvin and sat in our front seats with a view of the sea while we ate lunch. It was kind of nostalgic, almost like we lived in a camper van again. But before I could really enjoy those peaceful thoughts a mob of cats spotted the crumbs falling onto my lap and proceeded to do the pity meow. A herd of goats also wondered past and one had fabulous big horns which I just managed to grab a photo of. The sun popped out a little so we decided to walk down to another viewpoint of the bay in-front of us which had some sort of algae bloom so fluorescent greens were mixing with the turquoise waters.

We had to backtrack to leave the area which I was very happy to do as it meant we could stop at Al Bustan beach which we’d missed the day before. The beach itself wasn’t very impressive, it was unprotected from the winds so rather choppy but what I loved about this place was that it was backed with some incredible saw-tooth shaped black mountains. They were really impressive so we enjoyed a walk along the beach until we reached a sign saying that beyond this point was no entry to non-guests of the Ritz Carlton hotel!

It was time to leave this little coastal area and do a 100km drive south. There were quite a few horrible junctions to figure out but eventually we were on our way and the sun made an appearance again, causing all the mountains around us to pop in various shades of oranges and browns. The drivers are pretty good in Oman but a little unpredictable at times and one time Craig made a noise and began honking, I looked up to see the car to our left was coming right towards us and into our lane so Craig was honking and having to swerve out the way, turns out the driver was about to miss their turnoff and just decided to take it regardless of a car being in their way. Our hearts were pounding afterwards. We’ve also noticed that the locals have no patience when driving, if we dare think for a second which junction we need to take they’ll honk. It’s actually quite infuriating but I think they feel pretty bad when they drive past, window down so they can fling their arm in the air at us in frustration and then they realise we’re tourists.

Once it was time to start searching for a place to camp I scanned google maps and spotted a brown area on the map without any houses around. The brown turned out to be small sand dunes with the occasional road cutting through them and sand spilling across the tarmac. We ended up finding a lovely area where we could park just off the road and camp 20 meters away, encircled by dunes.

People had clearly camped here before and left some rubbish but some of it was useful like two breeze-blocks to use as seats and a wooden slab which Craig constructed into a kitchen counter. It was a lovely camp spot and we slept much better on the sand than the rock-hard mud.